Humanising Language Teaching
Year 2; Issue 5; September 2000

"… how much must be proved false for me to give up my proposition as false? ... Is it not the case that I have, so to speak, a whole series of props in readiness, and am ready to lean on one if another should be taken from under me and vice versa?"
Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, § 79

For the teacher:

We often take on trust that something is 'true'. But history has shown us that some statements once thought to be self-evident have had their 'supporting props' questioned and removed one by one until they were revealed to be 'false'. In this way, one model of the world replaces another. However, as individuals, we cannot live questioning everything all the time. And the act of questioning some assertions can represent a challenge to our very sense of self. So we are right, often, not to question our belief that certain things are true.

For the classroom:

1. Get your students into two teams. Give each team 10 minutes to think of 2 or 3 statements of things that they are certain are true. These statements are entirely up to the members of the group, but examples might be 'the earth goes round the sun'; 'the second world war lasted from 1939 to 1945'; 'this room has 13 people in it' 'my father is a dentist'. When the groups have come up with a list of these statements, write them on the board. Now get Group B to think of things which might stop Group A believing their statements to be true. And vice versa. What would have to be proved (and how) for them to believe the opposite of their statements? For example, would your students still believe that the room had 13 people in it if they were shown that ghosts exist, or that one of the people in the room is a robot, or a mirage?

2. In small groups, ask your students to tell each other whether there have been any times when they have changed their point of view? When (as teenagers or adults)? How (who said or did what)? Have they wanted to change their minds more recently?

3. Have your students ever met anybody with radically different thoughts or beliefs to theirs? Who were they? What beliefs did they have? How did your students react? Did your students change their views as a result of their meeting? Or did it confirm them in what they believed before? Do your students believe the same as their parents? If not, how and why did their views change?

4. We often categorise people with different beliefs into a different group. Do your students remember the first time they met someone who belonged to a different group to theirs (i.e. someone from a different religion, or with a different political viewpoint, or with a different skin colour, or who was differently abled physically or mentally)? Did meeting them change their attitudes or beliefs about anything?